Today, the University of Notre Dame, along with a diverse group of universities and schools, health care providers and social welfare agencies, filed federal lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s rule that requires many religious employers to provide coverage to their employees for sterilization, contraception and some abortion-causing drugs.

The lawsuits are efforts to “vindicate the country’s constitutional and traditional commitments to religious freedom and pluralism,” according to University of Notre Dame Law Professor Richard W. Garnett, whose teaching and scholarly research focus on constitutional law and religious freedom matters.

Professor M. Cathleen Kaveny participated in a panel discussion with Boston College Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau at Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center. Joining Professor Kaveny and Dean Rougeau was the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir.

Justice Marta Cartabia, a member of the Constitutional Court of Italy and a former Constitutional Law Professor at Milano Bicocca University, will deliver a lecture on “Toward a New European Model of Constitutional Adjudication?” at 4:30 p.m. April 26 in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140.

Justice Cartabia is the only woman among the members of the Consulta, the third woman to become a member in the history of the Court, and one of the youngest judges ever appointed. She is also serving as the Clynes Chair in Judicial Ethics at Notre Dame Law School.

Ross Douthat spoke at NDLS on April 25th to the Federalist Society on his new book, “Bad Religion, How We Became a Nation of Heretics."

Ross Douthat is the youngest opinion columnist in the history of the New York Times, has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, GQ, Slate, and currently writes movie reviews for The National Journal. He is a regular on The Colbert Report and Charlie Rose, and has written three books, the third of which will be the subject of his talk on Wednesday.

The Notre Dame Law & Economics Program is presenting a symposium on “Markets & Regulation in the 21st Century” with featured guests Professor Roberta Romano (Yale Law School) and Judge Richard A. Posner (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; University of Chicago Law School).

The April 20 program will begin at 2:00 p.m. in Eck Hall 1130 when Professor Romano will present her paper, “For Diversity in the International Regulation of Financial Institutions: Rethinking the Basel Architecture.” Then, at 3:30 p.m., Judge Posner will present his paper, “The Nirvana Fallacy Revisited.”

Professor Joseph Bauer appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition April 12 to discuss the issues raised by the Justice Department’s lawsuit accusing publishers and Apple of price fixing in the e-book market. You can listen to his analysis here.

The Notre Dame Law Association has named Thomas L. Shaffer, Robert and Marion Short Professor Emeritus of Law, the 2012 recipient of The Rev. Michael D. McCafferty, C.S.C., Award. The McCafferty award is presented by the association to Notre Dame lawyers — or members of the Notre Dame Law School faculty or administration — who have rendered distinguished service to the University.

The award is named for Fr. Michael McCafferty, a popular and highly respected teacher at Notre Dame Law School whose life was shortened by cancer. The award is presented on occasions when the association’s board deems someone worthy of receiving it.

The Notre Dame Law School, along with the entire University of Notre Dame community, is delighted that Professor Barry Cushman, the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Virginia, will be joining the Law School’s faculty this coming fall as the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law, Dean Nell Jessup Newton announced.

The Notre Dame Federalist Society will host Judge Thomas Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 3 at 12:30 p.m. in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140.

Judge Hardiman will be discussing policy disagreements with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Professor Stephen F. Smith will act as interlocutor. Lunch will be served.

The Federalist Society will also host former UN Ambassador John Bolton on Thursday, April 5, at 3:30 pm.

Ambassador Bolton’s talk will also take place in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140, with a reception to follow. Mr. Bolton will be speaking about foreign policy challenges for the Obama Administration. All are welcome.

John Tasioulas, Quain Professor of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Laws at University College London will be delivering the 2012 Natural Law Lecture at NDLS on Tuesday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140. The lecture is open to the public.

Professor Tasioulas has written widely on issues regarding human rights, punishment, and international law. He is the co-editor (with Samantha Besson) of The Philosophy of International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) and is currently working on a monograph on the philosophy of human rights.

The Court of Appeals of Indiana will hear oral arguments in Lawson v. State on Monday, April 2, at 3:30 p.m. in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom.

The case involves a mother’s appeal from her conviction for killing her son while attempting to exorcise a demon that she believed was possessing him. The defense unsuccessfully pled insanity. The issue on appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to overcome the mother’s claim of insanity.

The Graciela Olivarez Award will be presented to the Honorable Carlos T. Bea at 3:30 p.m. this Friday in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom (reception to follow).

The Notre Dame Hispanic Law Students’ Association’s award commemorates the accomplishments of Graciela Olivarez, Notre Dame Law School’s first female and Latina graduate.

Judge Carlos T. Bea Bea was born in Spain to Cuban parents and played basketball for both the Cuban Olympic team and the Stanford University varsity team before starting a distinguished legal career in San Francisco that led him to his current seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2003.

Both information meetings will take place at 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. in Eck Hall Room 1140.

Professor Bennett is director of the London Law Program and co-director (with Professor Cribari) of the London Summer Program.

The six-week London Summer Program is fully accredited and an integral part of Notre Dame Law School, which gives credit for its London courses in the same manner as it does for courses taken on its South Bend campus. Other law schools regularly approve a transfer of credits.

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell is giving two talks next week on the legal and ethical issues raised by drone warfare. One will take place at the "Ethics of Assassination" symposium at the University of Richmond March 27 and is likely to be featured on C-Span. The other, "Deadly Drones," is a March 29 Hesburgh lecture at the Army JAG School in Charlottesville, Va. It is being co-sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of Charlottesville and the Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School.

Panel of Judges

The second annual roundtable conference of the NDLS Program on Constitutional Structure took place March 23.

Organized by Professor Jennifer Mason McAward, the theme of this year’s program is “The Reconstruction Amendments and Constitutional Structure.” This Conference brought together leading scholars of Constitutional Law in the United States, including Notre Dame faculty members, to discuss their important work on the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution of the United States—a topic of enduring importance in the U.S. federal system.

The trip was funded by the State Department and American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative to support Bahrain’s newly adopted zero tolerance policy toward “torture, inhuman treatment and degrading detention” of political prisoners, which includes detaining them without judicial process. An independent commission found that police tortured and used excessive force against civilians arrested during protests that followed successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia last year.

During the trip Professor Gurulé toured the country’s major prison and visited with Bahraini’s Attorney General, Minister of Justice, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and senior members of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as human rights lawyers and political prisoners. (Photo: Judge Laughrey, Paul Simonett (the ABA representative assigned to the Middle East), Jimmy Gurulé, and the AG)

He will now evaluate current legislation and procedures that allow for judicial monitoring of detainees and make recommendations on how the legislation and procedures should be improved or amended. He will also make recommendations on the establishment and operations of a Special Prosecution Unit to investigate and prosecute allegations of government-sponsored torture.

“I am confident,” he says, “that the legal reforms being implemented in Bahrain will strengthen the rule of law in that country and serve as a model for strengthening the rule of law in other countries throughout the Gulf region.”

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft will deliver the keynote address at the annual Symposium hosted by the Law School’s Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy March 26.

The two-hour panel discussion will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. in Room 3130. The panel will be moderated by Professor Lisa Casey A light reception will follow in the atrium. Panelist include: John Ratcliffe, Glen Schleyer, Professor Wulf Kaal, and Dr. William Bradford.

The one-hour key-note address will then take place at 12:30 p.m. in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom. A light reception will follow in the atrium.

The Program on Law and Human Development presented its inaugural Annual Lecture Monday March 19 at 5:15 p.m. in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom. This year’s guest speaker was T. Alexander Aleinikoff, a distinguished scholar of immigration and refugee law, former dean of Georgetown Law School, and currently the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees.

An NDLS American Association of Justice (AAJ) Trial Team was victorious at the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Regional Competition held in Louisville, Ky., March 1-4. The team will now go on to compete in the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy National Competition held in Las Vegas and sponsored by the American Association for Justice. The Regional Champion team was comprised of John Burke, Nicole Cabezas, Mauri Miller and Brian Salvi. The Regional Runner-up team was comprised of Liz Farrington, Charles Galvin, Lauren Quigley and Jihan Williams.

The Notre Dame Intellectual Property Law Society presented a symposium on March 2.

The program featured opening remarks by Dean Nell Jessup Newton and presentations on “Clean Tech Intellectual Property” by Eric Lane of McKenna, Long, & Aldridge; “The Rise of Contingent Fee Representation in Patent Litigation” by Professor David Schwartz of Chicago-Kent College of Law; “Post-Grant Review at the USPTO” by Barry Irwin of Kirkland & Ellis; and a panel discussion moderated by Prof. Jodi Clifford on “The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in Practice.”

The Hon. Emilio M. Garza (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit), the Hon. Raymond M. Kethledge (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit), and the Hon. Martha A. Vazquez (U.S. District Court of New Mexico) will preside over the 62nd Annual NDLS Moot Court Showcase at 4 p.m. March 1 in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom.

The case, Tuckerman v. Betterly Hills County School District and Bliss, presents two questions:

(1) What standard should the Court apply when deciding whether a school district has the authority to discipline students for internet speech?

(2) May a court issue an adverse inference for spoliation of evidence where the spoliating party acted negligently and without any bad faith?

More information about the case, the advocates, and the judges is available here.

Professor James Kelly and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg will co-chair a task force that will create more options to combat the problem of vacant and abandoned properties that are hurting city neighborhoods.